Mistaken Identity

This is little short I wrote from a prompt given to me by CC. It’s a little out of the norm for me to do any ‘short’ pieces but it helped pull me away from working on my Current WIP which is consuming most of my writing time lately (it’s now nearly 52k already). So I hope you enjoy it!

Walking down the crowded hallway, Allie had a quickness to her step as she balled her fists at her sides. Most people were walking in the other direction and clipped her shoulders in their haste to get to the entrance ofthe arena.

Allie didn’t feel the pain of her quickly bruising shoulders, her mind was occupiedsomewhere else. She was looking for her flaky traveling buddy, Cher, who had taken off somewhere down the hallway.

Allie was fuming, her anger making every person’s face that passed her look like ablurred image, her head feeling a little light and dizzy. She hated Cher, she was loud, obnoxious and acted like a teenager instead of a grown woman but as much as she loved for the woman to get lost, she needed something from her.

Cher was a hard core Harrison fan and while they were waiting in line to get into the arena, she hadseen his car pass the window and turn into the private lot on the other side ofthe building. Being the flake she was, she thought it’d be a great idea to go in pursuit of the car even though Allietried to stop her. This ‘pursuit’ through the event center entailed slipping past security and going intorestricted areas.

Allie was timid when it came to rule breaking and she wouldn’t have bothered chasingher but Cher had their tickets to the Venom Tournament they had comethere to see. With her head preoccupied with what she wanted to do to Cher when she caught her, Allie wasn’t paying attention to the signs and accidentally followed a large group of people thatwere filing through a security check point.

Soon the large crowd of people walking in the hallwaybecame smaller and smaller until finally it become more of a trickle of peoplehere and there. Allie looked up at asign near her but didn’t see any familiar places on it. She turned around in a full circle hoping tosee another one that told her where to go. Her green eyes settled on the check point she had just walked through, a few guards standing near it checking people’s ID’s.

Her anger quickly turned to fear as she turned inanother quick circle. She knew she wassomewhere she shouldn’t and in her haste to find Chershe had gotten lost. A group of very good looking men passed her, Allie’s long blond ponytail sailing behind her asshe quickly turned to follow their gorgeous back sides with her eyes.

While checking them out, her eyes happened upon asign near the doors the men were walking towards that said; private balcony, with an arrow pointing towards a set of stairs off to the right. She now knew where she was, she was in the contestant lobby.

Her eyes shifted back to the handsome men talking near the entrance to the locker rooms, Allie recognizing one as Harrison, the contestant Cherhad gone in pursuit in. Her eyes didn’t linger there for long and quickly turned to look at something outside thewindow. She saw a red sports car sped into the valet turn around, the tires squealing as the car came to a quickhalt.

“Finally you’re here.”

Someone grabbed her arm, a frantic look on their face.

It was a man dressed in a white robe with a wide red stripe down themiddle. He quickly handed her a robe similar to his, in all the confusion Allie didn’t know what to say or who the heck this guy was.

“I’ve been waiting for you all morning. Hurry up and get into uniform, Lord Talon is coming.” The man tossed the robe over Allie’s head, Allie’s voice muffled as she struggled to form a protest but it only came out as garbled speech. He yanked the hood down, looking into herpretty face, his eyes scanning her appearance quickly. “You’re a little young but it can’t be helped. After the week I’ve had even a dog would do for this job.”

“A dog?” Allie looked at him with a blank expression,her hand paused on her ponytail that she was pulling out of her collar.

“Retrieval. That’s your job remember?” The man put his hands on Allie’sshoulders. “And who’s idea was it tosend a such a light weight little girl?” He frowned as he looked her over again, a small tsk escaping his annoyed lips. “It can’t be helped now I guess. Just remember to keep your mouth shut and never look Lord Talon in the eye, he’s hard on the newbies.”

“Newbies?” Allie narrowed her eyes on this fast talkingman, her frustration pooling around her eyes and forming deep wrinkles near their ends and on her forehead. “I’m not-“ Her voice was quickly cut off when she saw a man walk briskly into the lobby, a man so handsome it left her speechless.

She recognized him right away. It was Falvern Talon, the Red Guardian’s son. She had seen him in videos her brother had shown her on the plane ride here when he was tryingto explain the Venom Tournament to her. She was only half listening at the time because she could care lessabout such manly sports and had only volunteered to be her brother’s chaperone because it meant a half priced trip to the capital city. The only thing she remembered from the videoswas the good looking sorcerers and Falvern stood out the most amongst them. He was the top in the league, not to mentionlooked amazing holding a thick broadsword in his hands or whatever that largething he used as a weapon was called.

Asshe stood drooling like a fish fountain statue, he did something that made herwant to faint. His crimson red eyes fellonto hers and Allie started to panic. Gulping down the lump in her throat, Allie tried to avoid them but she couldn’t.

“Agirl?” Narrowing his eyes on Allie, Falvern ran his thick fingers through his blond flame tipped hair, the leatheron his gloves crackling slightly with his movement.

Allie wanted to disappear, her shoulders shifting forward as she tried to shrink herself.

His eyes on her weren’t wonderful like she had imagined. She could feel her beat red face, her head so dizzy with nervousness she wasfeeling faint. She wasn’t good with thiskind of stuff, memories of her high school years when she couldn’t even look acute boy in the eye flooding her thoughts. Even though she loved being this close to such a celebrity she wanted desperately to flee so it would spare her that look. The look a beautiful person gives to the nerd with the crush on them when they confess their love. She felt stupid and beneath him and just wantto disappear.

Falvern’s voice broke her out of her self hating thoughts, “Hey.” His voice sounded closer to her, a playfultone to it, “What’s wrong with you? You look like I’m going to bite you or something.”

Allie quickly looked up at him and at the hand he had outstretched to her in greeting. “Oh.” Allie quickly shook it, her hand limp in Falvern’s firm grip. “It’s a pleasure to be working for you Lord Talon.”

Falvern laughed, a devilish smile spreading over his face, “I wouldn’t be so sure….”